Flying Spaghetti Monsterism was created by a man from Oregon in protest of the Kansas School Board’s proposal to allow intelligent design to be taught in school.

When a mysterious banner about a Flying Spaghetti Monster appeared draped on top of Cole Field House last week, the message hit home for Maggie Bennett, a junior engineering major.

Fed up at one point with members of her family who believe in intelligent design, Bennett became one of an increasing population of people who support a “religion” that worships a noodly-appendaged invisible god called Flying Spaghetti Monster.

“It’s like believing in gravity,” Bennett said of evolution. “You don’t believe in it, it’s science.”

The religion is fake, but its message is real. It was created by Bobby Henderson, of Oregon, who decided something needed to be done in protest when the Kansas School Board approved a draft bill in August that would allow intelligent design – which states that humans are so complex that only a more intelligent being would be able to create them – to be taught in biology classes and given the same attention as evolution.

If schools were going to be required to teach intelligent design, Henderson argued, they should also be required to teach his religion, Flying Spaghetti Monsterism.

Flying Spaghetti Monsterism has spread rapidly online and by word of mouth. Its core beliefs are that the Spaghetti Monster who is invisible can use his powers to both fabricate evidence that evolution existed and to alter any information that scientists obtain about the age of Earth, leaving humans with a false belief about the world.

Forsaking the commandment forbidding idolatry, a lump of noodles and meatballs is being worshipped and praised across the web – “His Noodliness” even has his own Facebook account bearing a single message on the wall: “I have been touched by his noodly appendage. Ramen.”

“I think that, as much as the guy who created [the religion] meant for it to be a joke, he has a valid point,” said sophomore aerospace engineering major Adam Mirvis, who created the pro-FSM Facebook group called “Pastafarians of Maryland.”

Despite the relative obscurity of the Facebook group – boasting only 20 members from the university – the presence of Flying Spaghetti Monsterism is slowly making itself known on the web.

“This looks like it’s worth quitting my ‘I don’t join groups’ crusade” said sophomore computer science major Jeff Meister, one of the members, in a message board posting.

“I do not think that evolution or Flying Spaghetti Monsterism should be taught in schools because they are false,” sophomore computer engineering major Jeff James said.

But to Flying Spaghetti Monsterism supporters, that’s kind of the point.

“Anybody who’s bothering to push for intelligent design isn’t getting the joke,” said Bennett.

Contact reporter Megan Eckstein at newsdesk@dbk.umd.edu.